I like the simplicity of the Wizard Battle set -- reminds me of the old school small pocket-money Lego sets. I'll be interested to see just how much they've managed to make Saruman and Gandalf the White from Battle at the Black Gate look different, given that both are all white with white capes and appear to share the same hair piece. The face and torso printing plus the additional black on the beard for Saruman should be enough for fans but I wonder of the casual observer will be aware of the differences?!

Mouth of Sauron is an unusual choice for a relatively early release; I'm not complaining but he's only on-screen for a couple of minutes and wasn't that in the special edition DVD version, not the theatrical release? I would have thought a set with, say, the Lord of the Nazgul and the black winged beast plus Eowyn and Merry would be more mainstream. That aside,I rather like the Battle at the Black Gate and the new Aragorn minifig in Gondorian outfit looks great!

The Council of Elrond is an interesting one; it's not an obvious play set or an action set for kids so it seems to be very much aimed at AFOL / TFOL collectors. A clever way to sneak in an Arwen figure too. I wonder if they'll ever go back and do an Arwen in her grey outfit (from her first appearance in FotR) with standard legs instead of the sloped brick dress piece to be used with a horse and saddle and sword?

Incidentally, does anyone else see the new hair pieces for Elrond and Arwen being re-used but with the pale yellow blonde hair colour for Galadriel and Celeborn in a Lothlorien set...? Add in a Lothlorien Haldir, a big brick-built tree with some sort of tree-house platform, the pedestal, bowl and jug for the mirror of Galadriel, and maybe a couple of boats and one or two members of the Fellowship and you should have another pretty cool set.

I'm still hoping to see the Bridge of Khazad Dûm with Gandalf and brick-built Balrog (as per the game would be just fine by me) as a set for the next release. I'd also really like to see the Golden Hall of Edoras as a minifig set too. If they could really push the boat out then a prequel set (or two) with Gil-Galad, Elven Warriors, Elendil and Isildur (+/- Gondorian soldiers), Sauron and orcs, would be really great. Obviously this would also really need a version of prequel Elrond too but I wonder how they would manage that without annoying everyone who didn't get the limited release with the game?

It's interesting that LOTR has been so popular for non-battle sets. That's not even something that their own Castle sets really do (afaik), but we've had, what, 4 now? Gandalf Arrives, Council of Elrond, An Unexpected...Visit? whatever Bag End's set is called, and that poly bag of Frodo with cooking corner.

Not that I'm really complaining since Bag End and Gandalf Arrives are two nice sets, it's just something of a novelty for a licenced theme of an actiony series.